What are the duties of a church building committee?

Ruth O'NeilUpdated February 21, 2017

Is your church outgrowing the space it has? Maybe it is time for you to build a new building. The first order of business is to put together a building committee. This gives one group of people the job of making decisions for the church as a whole. The committee should oversee several aspects of the building process, including design, budget and construction.

Choosing the Committee

Form a diverse group of people from the church to cover everyone's needs. For example, the committee should include people from all different areas of the church ministry: someone who runs the kitchen, someone who works in the nursery, the youth leader, Sunday school teachers, deacons and lay people. Having a broad range of people will be helpful when discussing ideas and meeting all the needs of the different church ministries. Depending on the size of your church and the amount of the building work, choose five to eight people for your building committee.

Consultant

Hire a building consultant. Ask different churches in your area that have recently done some building which consultant they would recommend. Explain to the consultant what the church wants to build or add on to the existing building. The building consultant should be able to give you an estimate off how much the building will cost and should also be able to give you names of reputable contractors in your area. The building consultant can also give the building committee pointers on what will work, what will not work and also maybe give some suggestions that the building committee may not previously thought of.

Permits

Obtain the necessary permits for building from the local government before proceeding with any building.

Set a Budget

Set a budget for the building project after your visit with the building consultant. This will have to go before the entire church as a vote before you can go ahead with the project. If the church does not already have the money available, members of the building committee will have to go to the bank to apply for a loan.

Hire Contractors

Take some bids from local contractors. This is a good area to get recommendations from area churches as well. Unfortunately there are a lot of contractors that like to take advantage. Even if you have members of your church that can do a lot of the work, it is still a good idea to hire out the work to prevent problems later on, but this is up to the church as a whole. If budget issues are a problem, maybe using your church members is the best way for you to get the most for your money.